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Tag Archives: Movember

The guys from The London Distillery Company had their fancy, wet-shave last night and are now ready to grow creepy moustaches through the month of November. Pictures from the event can be found on their Facebook page.

CEO Darren Rook

The team from TLDC hasn’t shaved for about a week now. The bare cheeks and upper lip will be revealed again after the Movember shave-down this evening. The London Distillery Company supports and joined team Whisky 4 Movember.

A few weeks ago, Darren, Marco and Andrew were sitting around, trying to figure out what to do with the first whisky to come off a still in London for over a hundred years, and then it hit us: Movember (the month formerly known as November) is right around the corner…

The London Distillery Company will fill limited edition 20-litre casks of whisky, sell them to caring malt-lovers, and donate half of the proceeds to charity! Needless to say, they were a little excited. We debated on how many we would fill and landed on the seemingly arbitrary number of ‘109’ – but that’s one cask for each year since the last whisky distillery in London closed its doors for good.

The casks will be shipped in from selected craft distilleries in the United States, like the decent fellas at Balcones Distillery in Texas. Owner Chip Tate read about our idea online and got in touch with us over Twitter to donate a whole pallet’s worth of beautiful American oak casks, freshly disgorged of Bourbon. (Cheers, Chip. Plenty respect and Mo’ Bro love from across the Atlantic.)

Each cask will be individually numbered and have its own unique moustache hand carved or branded into the end. And if you’re feeling especially proud of your Movember effort, then you can send us a photograph of your mo’ and we’ll have our talented artists immortalise it in the wood for you. To top it all off, you can even come to the distillery and fill the barrel yourself.

Casks cost £495 ex. VAT, which works out at approx. £36 per 70cl bottle of cask strength whisky when all is done and the taxman is happy. If you want to tuck your cask under your pillow for safe keeping (and the occasional sample?) then you can pay the duty upfront and take it home once its filled. If you’d rather we kept it, that’s fine too. Up to three years storage in our warehouse is included in the price.

And for all you naysayers who think that a 20-litre cask is too small to age in, don’t fret. Andrew is going to design a uniquely tailored, one-off spirit with Dr. Jim Swan, wood specialist and whisky consultant to the stars, so that your whisky is perfectly fruity and mellow after resting for only 36 months. The secret is in the fermentation…

A big thank you to all the people who helped us out this year at such short notice – you know who you are!

The final figure raised as of today was £875.68, a not too shabby start, but please note that the Movember bottle is still available from www.masterofmalt.com.

Looking forward…

2009 is just rolling out and with 2010 under two weeks away we are already in the planning stages to do next year bigger and better. With Serge, Dave and Neil all showing great support this year we are going to be knocking on more doors, finding Mo’s to match new whisky/whiskies and putting on tastings, events and generally having some fun with facial hair.

Join the team and do your bit for men’s health in the UK and internationally!

p.s Buy this months 10th anniversary copy of The Chap magazine for the chance to win your own bottle of the M’Orkney whisky with your tache on the label.

There’s some amazing support for the charity and we’re well into the hundreds for bottle sales, but still need help as a team to raise awareness and support for Movember, so get to Master of Malt if you haven’t already.

Just to give you an idea of how the whisky tastes here’s my own personal tasting note.

Colour: A ginger moustache with a hint of rose gold.

Label: M’Orkney – Handlebar

Age: Lowest age is 11years old

Type: Vatted Malt/Blended Malt

Price: £29.95

ABV: 40%

Nose: Pulling the cork out the bottle for the first time my wife notes the gleefully expression of a small kid grinning as it produces that heady/satisfying popping noise that you only get from a newly opened bottle of whisky. There’s an instant waft of fairground honey coulomb pouring out the bottle, which is a great start as I haven’t even got it to the glass and I’m excited to try this for the first time since the cask selection process.

side note: When we put this in front Charlie MacLean he went in for seconds; stating “its a great whisky”. Pouring it into my nosing glass I understand why!

Sniffing this I find it develops a light woody spice hiding behind the sweet caramel and light wine top notes. Normally I’m nosing at cask strength and this has just as much to offer. On further inspection the nose releases a malted aroma which gives way quickly to a subtle ash balanced with flora hints of plum. The sweet honey coulomb lingers as a theme on the nose and I could sit with this all evening enjoying the olfactory development. For some reason Asian women with warm saki, covered in Japanese tattoos pops to mind.

Pallette: Before we get too far into this whisky I want to approach the subject of water, ice and mixers. Basically we (or I) think YOU SHOULD ENJOY THIS WHISKY AS YOU SEE BEST FOR YOU! If you want to mix it that’s cool by me (I personally play around with how to serve whisky all the time), I only ask you take a small sip before adding what ever it is you may want to add (just so you understand the flavours we decided to put into the bottle).

Now I’m going to take a swalley of this from a Riedel whisky nosing glass so the mouth effect will be different for those using a traditional tumbler or a ISO style glass due to the design. Would recommend investing in at least one of these glasses if you like your whisky.

As the liquid flows out of the glass a wave of sweetness hit the tongue followed by a sensation oiliness and light peppery spice. Although it subdues quickly allowing the other flavours to kick in the initial flavour does linger, but I wouldn’t say this has a long finish as defined by Richard Paterson (you’ll have to twitter @the_nose to find out more)

Without sounding like the wine show; strawberries, fudge, pistachio, cherries and almond develop quickly and then subside to a pleasant warmth of smouldering fire and light sherry. My initial view shifts from the Asian lady to a night in front of the fire with a sexy little blond eating oysters on the half shell and drinking single cask Highland Park and Scapa.

A great intro whisky for none whisky drinkers and a fantastic every day dram for the seasoned pro. Have at least one friend getting this for Christmas.

So to summarise: This whisky is an evening with the Movember UK gents. By this I mean in working to a good cause it exudes class, style, accessibility and fun. After making new friends, meeting some interesting and attractive ladies, it all end in doing some good for men’s health issues.

Last week myself, Neil, Ben, Justin, Tom and Jonathan all caught a flight form Gatwick and set about telling the people up North about Whisky4Movember. The guys from Movember came up for the event too!

We headed to the Whisky Picnic in Edinburgh. A night where you raid your Grannies cupboard for tweed, get some convivial gents and ladies together and having some whisky fun! Was a great night with the guys from Movember ( JC and Steve are top class chaps).

Movember is getting some great support in Edinburgh. We arrived on the Saturday and made a pit stop to the Queen Street and Leith branches of The Scotch Malt Whisky Society where we found the staff all growing MO’s and raising funds for men’s health. Next year is one to look out for.